Richard Edwards is director emeritus of the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including Homesteading the Plains: Toward a New History (Nebraska, 2017) and Natives of a Dry Place: Stories of Dakota before the Oil Boom. Jacob K. Friefeld is a historian at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. He is coauthor of Homesteading the Plains: Toward a New History (Nebraska, 2017). Angela Bates is the executive director of the Nicodemus Historical Society and a descendant of the original homesteaders of Nicodemus, Kansas. She has served on the Kansas Historical Foundation board of directors and is a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.